Car-brake



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BRATTLE, OF ()OON RAPIDS, IOWA.

CAR-BRAKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 243,055, dated June 21, 1881,

Application filed October 15, 1880, (ModeL) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM BRATTLE, of Coon Rapids,in the county of Carroll and State of Iowa, have invented a new and Improved Car-Brake, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved mechanism whereby one wheel in each car of a series of connected cars is made to apply the brake to that particulur car almost simultaneously with and in consequence of the application of the brake to the forward or rearward car.

The invention consists of a combination of chains, rods, levers, and wheels, operated by either the engineer or brakemau, whereby a wheel (which, by means of a pinion and cogwheel, operates the brake) is applied in a horizontal direction to one wheel of each car in a train, all of which is hereinafter described.

Figure 1 is a plan of the apparatus, partly in section, in position on the bottom of a car.

Fig. 2 is a partly-sectional side elevation online a" as, Fig. 1, with the brake applied from the front. Fig. 3 is adetailed side elevation of the brake-wheels and their immediate connections.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

In the drawings, A represents the bottom of a car, the under face of it being shown in Fig. 1, and B indicates an attached car-wheel.

O is a jointed connecting-rod, having one end pivoted on the bottom of the car at a and its other end pivoted to an extremity of the rectangular lever D, which lever D is fulcrumed on the vertical brake-shaft E, one end of which shaft E is secured in the bottom A of the car, while the other end is journaled in the yoke E, that is secured on the said bottom A and projects downward therefrom. The opposite and outer end of this lever D carries journaled on avertical stud, b, a wheel, F, and a pinion, F, attached thereto, the periphery of the wheel F being designed to extend beyond the periphery of cog-wheel G, so that said wheel F may be brought in contact with the car-wheel B, while the pinion F gears into the cog-wheel G, that is keyed on the brake-shaft E.

E is a brace extending from the shaft E to the outer end of the lever D, to strengthen and stiffen the parts.

H is the brake-shaft chain, having one end secured to.the brake-shaft E and the other end to the lever of any common brake now in use.

I I are parallel guide plate's secured on the ends of the studs ff, which project downward from the car-bottom A; and K is a sliding buffer whose head projects beyond the front of the car, and to its rear end are secured two parallel cross bars or plates, 9 9, that embrace the inner edges of the guide-plates I I, so that said buffer K can slide back and forth supported between said plates 1' I.

To the upper face of the rear end of said buffor K a sheave, L, is pivoted 011 avertical pin, h, and another sheave, M, is jonrnaled on a vertical pin, 1, which is held in place by the plate M.

A chain, N, designed to extend along beneath the connected cars, is passed through a buffer-supporting hanger, K, around the sheave L, then forward around the sheave M, and then rearward, and connected rigidly with the jointed connecting-rodG, at about the center thereof, and thence rearward to extend to the next car, to which it may be connected by means of a snap-hook. When the chain N is pulled in the direction of its arrow, Fig. 1, it has the effect of moving the connecting-rod O and lever D to the position shown in Fig. 1, and thereby throwing the friction-wheel F outward, with its periphery in contact with the car-wheel B, and holding it there, so that the continued revolution of the said car-wheel B will cause the wheel F to revolve, and thereby, by means of the pinion F and wheel G, cause the brake-shaft E to revolve until the brake-shaft chain H is wound tightly upon said shaft E, and the other end of brake-shaft chain H being connected with the long arm of any common brake-lever it operates to brake the wheels of the car. and the sheaves L M are designed for the purpose of automatically taking up the slack of the chain N that may be caused by the rear car of a train closing up on the forward cars when the brake is applied to the front car, the buffer K being centrally fixed on the bottom A of the car, but low enough not to interfere in any way with the coupling of the car. When The sliding buffer K the chain N is pulled in an opposite directionin the direction of the dotted arrow, Fig. 1 the upper or inner arm of the connecting-rod O is drawn back in contact with the stop a, and the other portions ofsaid rod 0 are brought to a position whereby the friction-wheel F is held outward against the car-wheel B, in the same manner and with the same effect as when said chainN is pulled in a contrary direction, and on slackening the chain N the pressure is thereby removed from the wheel F, and the chain H immediately unwinds from the brakeshaft E.

This device can be applied to any car provided with any brake commonly in use on freight-cars, so that at any moment the engineer can applya brake to every car on the train with suflicient force to stop the train in less time than it would take the brakeman to apply the common brake to two or three cars, thereby greatly reducing the chances of collisions and other accidents.

This device can be effectually operated on all the cars of a train, from the front or rear of a train, by means of the continuous chain N by engineer or brakeman.

I am aware that there have been frictionbrakes deriving their power from frictionwhcels placed in contact with a driving-wheel and chains, and are open to other serious objections. I do not therefore claim a brake operated by such means.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. In car-brakes, the combination, with the brake-shaft having the cog-wheel G, of the lever D, fulcrumed on said shaft, carrying a side pinion and friction-wheel at its outer end, and supported by a brace, E, extending from said shaft to the outer end of lever D, whereby the lever and brace revolve about the shaft, while the cog-wheel and pinion are kept always in mesh and alignment.

2. The combination of the buffer K 9, guideplates I, the pivoted sheaves L M, the chain N, thejointed rod 0, and the lever D, the latter fulcrumed on brake-shaft and carrying friction-wheel F, whereby said friction-wheel is held in contact with the car-wheel by direct pull on a single chain from either end of car and the slack of chain between cars is taken up.

WVitnesses: WILLIAM BRATTLE.

A. O. STEELE, H. B. WEBBER. 

